Writing a book is a very lonely business. You are totally cut off from the rest of the world, submerged in your obsessions and memories.

A good novel is a conjunction of many factors, the main of which is without a doubt, hard work.

Nothing better protects a human being against the stupidity of prejudice, racism, religious or political sectarianism, and exclusivist nationalism than this truth that invariably appears in great literature: that men and women of all nations and places are essentially equal, and only injustice sows among them discrimination, fear, and exploitation.

I couldn't imagine any other way of living, outside of books, outside my work. Which doesn't mean I am not interested in other things, of course - I am interested in many things. But the center, the crux, is always literature.

There is an incompatibility between literary creation and political activity.

Like writing, reading is a protest against the insufficiencies of life.

Violence represents the worst kind of conformism.